Birmingham remembers the deadly 1963 church bombing by the KKK

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama Hundreds of people black and white filled an Alabama church that was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan 50 years ago to mark the anniversary of a blast that killed four little girls.

The Rev. Arthur Price taught the same Sunday school lesson that students heard the morning of the bombing: "A Love That Forgives."

Churchgoers attend services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the church by Ku Klux Klan members that killed four young girls on Sept. 15, 1963, and became a landmark moment in the civil rights struggle.
AP Photo/Dave Martin

Congregation members and visitors sang the old hymn "Love Lifted Me" and joined hands in prayer at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church.

"It is a sad story, but there is a joy that came out of it," said Sarah Collins Rudolph, who survived the blast, according to Reuters. Her 14-year-old sister, Addie Mae Collins, was among the victims of the bomb.

Rev. Price, at the church's Sunday school class, asked: "What would you do if you could get your hands on that Blanton dude who bombed the church?"

The Christian answer, Price said, according to Reuters, is to practice "the love that forgives."

The four girls killed in the Birmingham, Alabama, bombing.
CBS

In a statement Sunday, President Obama said:"We remember Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley who were killed 50 years ago in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. That horrific day in Birmingham, Alabama quickly became a defining moment for the Civil Rights Movement. It galvanized Americans all across the country to stand up for equality and broadened support for a movement that would eventually lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

Later Sunday, Attorney General Eric Holder and others are scheduled to attend a commemoration.

A dynamite bomb went off outside the church on Sept. 15, 1963, killing four girls and critically injuring a fifth. The Klansmen were convicted in the bombing years later, and one remains imprisoned.